I get out of bed at the crack of 7:00, sometimes 8:00, okay . . . sometimes's 9:00 AM. I go through my morning grooming routine, which takes a solid five minutes, unless I'm in a hurry. I change into my work clothes, a fresh nightgown and my not always so fresh slippers a.k.a my scuff scuffs. It’s on to the kitchen to prepare a healthy breakfast of Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies and my drink of choice for the day. Today it is Hawaiian Punch.

Armed with my nourishing meal, I head to my office, also known as my living room recliner. I power up my laptop, and check my schedule. I am now in my blogger/reviewer/social media networking zone. My job (volunteer work really) . . . I read, blog, review, blog, Facebook, blog, Tweet, blog, and repeat. Seven days a week, with the exception of holidays and sick days, I am plugged in.

Of course I do get out of the house. Sometimes I work in my mobile office, as I was doing when writing this article. My mobile office, a 2004 Chevy Malibu named “The Reverend”, is spacious, and offers a wonderful view of wherever I may be parked at the time, waiting for a sibling while they are at an appointment.

And there you have my glamorous reviewer/blogger life.

You know what? I love every single second of it!

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Brick and Mortar Forever!

There is nothing like a real life, walk in the front door, pay at the register bookstore. I adore them! I could spend every day in one. The only thing holding me back is, my town, Dover, DE, capitol of the first state doesn’t have any bookstores. They’ve all closed down. And they were very small, without big selections. Over half of the stock of one of them was used books. (I’ll spare you my germ phobia.)

My sister(s) and I plan day trips to our favorite Barnes & Noble, which is a hour and a half away from us, in another state. We do have one a bit closer in state, but it’s part of a huge mall, and the parking is a nightmare! (I digress). When I walk into “my” Barnes & Noble, I feel my worries and stress just fall away. My sister(s) and I stake out our favorite table at the café, and prepare to spend a day in paradise. It’s nothing for us to get there when the doors open, and stay until 2 or 3:00 in the afternoon. (One day I’m expecting them to start charging us rent.) Settled at my table, a stack of books and magazines surrounding me, and a cold root beer sitting before me, I am whole. I am at peace. I am home.

I enjoy surfing though Amazon, and Barnes & Noble online, but nothing can compare to the feeling, the smell, the sight of a real bookstore. Forever may they stand!

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Pets in Cozy Mysteries

I love the wonderful pets that are featured in cozy mysteries. The adorable cats and dogs (mostly) have such big personalities. Some even have sleuthing talents just like their owners.

While a lot of cozy pets are completely fictional, many are based on real life pets of the authors. Some are even based on, and named after reader’s pets!

I would love to have my Emma Belle a.k.a. Emmy show up in a cozy. However, there are a couple of issues. While Emmy is a little ole love bug, all she does is sleep. And when she’s awake, well, she has the most disinterested, bored look on her face.

Think Garfield the cat’s expression on a dog’s face, and there you have my girl. Every scene with Emmy in a book would read something like, Emmy was asleep as usual or Emma looked at me in that bored way.

No, my fur baby just doesn’t seem to be cozy mystery material. That being said, I couldn't love her more if I tried.

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I hope you enjoyed this edition of

The Cozy Times.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you'd like to see more like it.

Lisa, this was so cute. I understand about the morning routine which is about the ONLY thing that I am fast at!! A shower takes 7 minutes then drying hair and getting dressed or slapping on some quick eye brow pencil and eye liner and lip gloss (only if I am heading out to an appt.) takes another two or three minutes tops (and one swipe of a sponge with foundation to cover the rosacea!!!). I don't look much better AFTER adding these few little makeup items but I do have to keep on TRYING I am told. What takes the longest is getting the tight compression stockings on and finding the most NON tight clothes that I can still get into. Now that takes awhile. My clothes "shrink" every off season, it is amazing how that happens.

There are some days like snowy days that it just isn't worth the time to find an outfit as a nice clean dryer sheet scented nightgowns and nightshirts ARE an outfit already. Right??? And I have a new long sweater that comes to the floor that looks like a bathrobe but in a pinch perhaps when I open a door to a delivery guy they think that I am on my way out and not just lounging around the house in a bathrobe. It is one of those "two for the money" kind of pieces of clothing.

I will send you a picture of mine in case you want to get one similar to it for answering the door too.

You are one in a million Lisa. And love and peace to you tonight. Cynthia